Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 75:1 (NA 2024)
Article: Patriarchal Names In Context
Author: Alan R. Millard

TynBull 75:1 (2024) p. 155

Patriarchal Names In Context¹

Alan Millard

Rankin Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Languages
University of Liverpool

Abstract

Observing similarities between some Amorite and patriarchal names, scholars have suggested that they indicate that the patriarchal narratives themselves reflect the Middle Bronze Age. Others have observed that names of the same form were current in later times, so could not point to any specific period for the patriarchs’ life setting. Further study of Amorite names can strengthen the case for the early date for the patriarchal names.

1. Purpose1

Ancient Hebrew personal names, like others in Semitic languages, were often formed from a finite verb and a divine name or title, such as Jonathan (יְהוֹנָתָן, yəhô-nāṯān), rendered ‘the Lord has given’, and Zechariah (זְכַרְיָה, zəḵar-yâ), ‘the Lord has remembered’, with perfective verbal forms (grammatically indicated as suffix conjugation, QTL-perfective), or with verbal forms traditionally termed ‘imperfective’, such as Jehoiarib (יהוֹיָרִיב, yəhô-yārîḇ, 1 Chr 9:10), ‘the Lord strives’, or Igdaliah (יִגְדַּלְיָהוּ, yigdal-yāhû, Jer 35:4), ‘God is great’ (grammatically indicated as prefix conjugation, yQTL). Yet in certain circumstances ‘perfective’ and ‘imperfective’ appear to be reversed. Grammarians discuss these features endlessly, seeking logical reasons behind

TynBull 75:1 (2024) p. 156

them in the historical development of the language.2 The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships of personal names borne by people in the early part of Israel’s history, particularly those containing such verbal forms, with names recorded in other ancient records.3

2. Amorite Names

2.1 Amorite Names In Cuneiform Texts

During the twentieth century multitudes of documents in cuneiform have made known thousands of personal names which throw light on name-giving in West Semitic Hebrew. Assyriologists reading cuneiform tablets written in the early second millennium BC noted numerous names with characteristics showing that they did not belong to East Semitic Babylonian, but to a West Semitic language which Babylonian scribes labelled ‘Amorite’. Hardly any d...